Following the removal of import tariffs on Australian wine in March 2024, mainland China has reclaimed the position as Australian wine’s number one export destination by value.
However, there have been significant changes in the wine market in mainland China in recent years with wine sales moving away from gift-giving, official entertaining, corporate banqueting, and symbolic consumption. This has contributed to the wine market in mainland China shrinking to one-third of the size it was five years ago. This does not mean that Chinese consumers have abandoned wine – rather the way wine is purchased and consumed has evolved.
To assist Australian wine businesses to gather a deeper understanding of current wine consumers in mainland China, Wine Australia has sourced some new quantitative and qualitative research undertaken by Circana in September 2025. A sample of the full report is made exclusively available to Wine Australia levy-payers. This bulletin highlights some of the key insights from the report.
Wine consumer insights for mainland China
For those who drink wine in mainland China, wine was the second most consumed alcohol beverage behind beer, with red wine being the most popular wine style. Compared with other categories wine attracts a wider range of consumer in terms of age and gender but is skewed towards higher income groups.
There are some demographic differences by wine style. Red and white still wines are more skewed to older consumers while rosé and sparkling wine skew towards females.
The main barriers to purchasing wine in mainland China are the trend towards reducing overall alcohol consumption, unfamiliarity with wine, and a perceived lack of suitable occasions to drink wine (see Figure 1). The main barriers to purchasing Australian wine in mainland China were lack of new products and promotions and the price.
Figure 1: Reason wine was not purchased in last month
Source: China Consumer Study of Wine, Sep 2025
While the frequency of wine purchases increased compared to the prior year, over half of consumers still only purchased wine one to two times per month. This suggests there is upside in wine consumption if wine can be shown to be fit into more drinking occasions.
Red wine purchases were largely stable compared to the year before, while the growth was coming from other wines such as white wine, rosé and sparkling wine, indicating consumers are now more willing to try new wine styles. This is an important insight as red wine has traditionally dominated Australian wine exports to mainland China.
Consumers have a stronger emotional connection to wine compared to beer and spirits. Wine is seen as enhancing ambience and contributes to a sense of ritual. Wine is also perceived as being more aspirational and elegant.
In terms of drinking occasions, white wine and sparkling wine are perceived to be more suitable for social occasions in comparison to celebrations or special occasions. Rosé was perceived to be more elegant and aspirational compared to red and white wine.
All wine styles were perceived to be ideal for casual drinking occasions such as relaxing after a busy day and to complement meals. Australian wine leads wines from other countries in having a stronger association with enhancing ambience, a sense of ritual and for socialising with family and friends. In paring wine with food, Australian wine only trailed Chinese wines in suitability to pair with Chinese cuisine and was second to France in compatibility with Western cuisine.
The sample report is available to levy-payers to download here.